Amaranthine Affection
by GeneralJellyfish
Summary: in which a love sick Gryffindor attempts to woo a shy Ravenclaw or in which two halves become one whole
1. O N E

**KAILYNN'S GAZE WAS COMPLETELY** transfixed on her window as the Scarlet Steam train swept across the countryside, billowing puffs of smoke dissipating into the air as it travelled by. on the rolling hills and mountainside outside the window.

The countryside stretched before her like a great quilt of golden, brown and green squares held together by the thick green stitching of the hedgerows. It rose and fell like giant waves on a gentle ocean and was dotted with animals. Occasionally there was a wood that separated the fields, or a farmhouse or barn, but it was mostly open fields.

But her peaceful contemplation was abruptly cut short as the compartment door was slammed open, causing the window rattled dangerously and the door bounce back on to the furious individuals' arm.

Thick, dark red hair and bright green almond-shaped eyes were all the poor Ravenclaw was able to see before a body threw her off her seat, a loud, irrigated scream almost bursting her eardrum as they both tumbled to the floor.

"I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!"

Snickering from the compartment entrance prompting Kailynn to look up and frowned at the smug looking culprit, painfully trying to ease the tight grip her friend had on her so that she could get off the dirty floor.

"Are you really sure about that, Lils?" The other girl teased. "You looked pretty cosy back there, if I do say myself."

This only caused the red-haired girl to let out another scream and squeezed the Ravenclaw girl tighter.

"Lily, would you possibly mind-" Kailynn wheezed out, her elbows becoming sore from keeping both herself and her friend from collapsing completely to the floor. "-moving a bit?"

With a squeak off embarrassed surprise, the girl practically leaped off her, hands going to her mouth as she apologised profusely to her slightly-blue-in-the-face friend. "It's just- ugh! He makes me so mad sometimes, like I could just rip his dragon sized egotistical head off and feed it to an actual dragon!" She huffed, lending a hand to Kailynn to help her off the dirty floor.

"That's not the only thing you want to rip off, isn't it, _Evans._ " The girl in the doorway said with a dramatic wiggle of her eyebrows as she lazily flopped on a seat. "And speaking of dragon sized, have you ever-"

"Marlene!"

Sporting a small smile, Kailynn shook her head at her loud friends as they bickered back and forth about making the appropriate comments at the appropriate times. "So why exactly do you hate him this time?" She asked quietly, both curious and wanting to calm the growing argument.

If she had thought Lily was mad before, the fire that ignited in her eyes surely proved her wrong, even before she had opened her mouth to explain.

"That plug-ugly, mingebag, toerag of a git!" She spat, eyes wide and furious, her fists clenched tightly in ager. "I don't know how he did it and I don't _want_ to know how he did it, I just wish that he didn't do it!"

Kailynn's gaze steadily became more confused and concerned as her friend continued to rant and insult the boy, somehow managing to make herself even more angry in the process.

"What did he do?" She whispered to Marlene, fearing the consequences of interrupting Lily's tirade and facing her wrath. However, her stealth was deemed pointless at the screech of anger that the Gryffindor produced when Marlene answered her question.

"James Potter is Head Boy."

The realisation that dawned on her face was instant, her eyes conveying her sympathy for Lily as she bit her lip and leaned back in her seat.

"Oh."

The next couples minutes of the train ride was spent trying to convince Lily that James Potter was in fact not going to be her 'impending doom'.

* * *

Within their little trio, the two Gryffindors and the Ravenclaw, they have a tradition. It's not a particularly complex tradition, and nor does it have any particularly special meaning behind it, but it somehow came to be and the girls had suck by it religiously as for some reason, it allowed them to not only learn more about each other and sometimes, themselves, but it also allowed them to forget about the worries of the world outside the safe confides of the train.

And no, it's not playing 'Truth, Dare or Fire Whiskey.'

"But that makes no sense!" Marlene whined, her head tipping back with an eye roll and a groan. "We've been on this for half an hour now, and the only conclusion I can draw, is PENIS!" She shouted, arms flailing around as she made her point for that the thousandth time. "It is literally the only possible answer!"

It was a game of riddles, cleverly titled, 'Riddle Me This.' Full credit goes to Marlene.

"Well it's certainly not the answer to this!" Lily told her forcefully, equally as frustrated and visibly uncomfortable with how flippantly the other Gryffindor used the male anatomy in her sentences. "And seeing as that's not the answer, could you _please_ stop finding excuses to say pe- that word!" She hissed, red flushing quite easily to her cheeks. She looked around fugitively, as if someone was going to haul her away to Azkaban for saying penis.

Well beyond the stage of reason, Marlene raised an eyebrow in challenge, the brief smirk that resided on her face disappeared as she opened her mouth dramatically wide and took a deep breath-

"PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! PE-"

"OH MY GOD, SHUT UP!"

Kailynn watched her two crazy friends argue back and forth in quiet amusement, not usually the one to participant in any sort of loud activities. True to her Ravenclaw name, the girl had told them tricky, but seemingly simple riddle, and had taken out a book to read while Marlene and Lily had their heated discussion about the answer – as per usual.

"What's this I hear about penises?"

The effect was instant.

It was like the compartment had been rapidly filled with water from the Black Lake and just as rapidly being drained, leaving the two previously arguing girls void of their intense and exuberant emotions. Instead, they were filled with varying degrees of dread – albeit, all three had different reasons. But just as soon as the fire left Lily's eyes, it came back in full force, making Kailynn vaguely surprised that her hair hadn't followed suit and caught ablaze.

"Potter." She ground out, teeth grit, eyes narrowed and back so rigid she could put Professor McGonagall to shame.

If her tone of voice and aggravated body language were meant to deter the confidence-oozing boy, then they were doing a very good job. In anything, it was having the exact opposite of the desired effect. This was proved by the growing of his grin and the quick ruffle of hair to make it even messier that what it was as he stood there in his full and true cocky, Macho Man glory. "You haven't answered my question, Evens." He replied, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

She huffed indignantly and refused to make eye contact with him. "None of your business, _Potter_." She said snidely. But in true Gryffindor style, James Potter simply lifted his hands to his heart and clutched it, a very dramatic and pain filled expression on his face as he leant against the doorframe.

"Oh, Evans, how you wound me. My sweet, sweet Lily-flower, I never knew you could be capable of such cruelty."

"Shove off." Was Lily's only response, to which he found great amusement in. Knowing that he would get no more out of the girl of his dreams, he briefly looked at the other Gryffindor, but was met with a swift 'no' and a smirk before he even got his question out. Pouting like a kick puppy dog, he turned to his last resort, who was currently trying to become one with her book in order to not attract attention.

"Kaiilyyyynnn." He sang, causing her to try and bury her head further into the upside-down book, if that was even possible. "Kailynn, you know you want to tell me. Just look at these poor puppy dog eyes. Who could possibly resist these babies?"

In a split second of momentary weakness, the girl glanced up and was met with the full power of Puppy Potter. Knowing that she would be unable to hold the fort that protected her social awkwardness, she sent a silent, but desperate plead with her eyes to her two friends. However, that proved to be useless as one girl simply smirked at her, and the other mouthed 'don't you dare' with a murderous gleam in her eyes. But all it took one was one more glance at Potters' infamously hazel puppy dog eyes and she was almost be ready to sacrifice her cat to get off his radar.

"It's a game!" She blurted out, and immediately felt the beginnings of a blush creeping into her ears at her unnecessarily loud voice. She cleared her throat and carefully marked her place in the book, tactfully ignoring Lily's piercing glares. "We were playing a game."

Confused, James' face scrunched and he wiggled his nose in way that many of the female population would fight each other to see in such proximity. "A game? What kind of game is about penis? I mean, I know a fair few myself, I can even give you a little demonstration, if you know what I-"

"Like I said, Potter, none of your business." Lilly interrupted, both Kailynn's and her own face going red at his provocative suggestion.

"No, you know what?" Marlene said slowly, a smug smirked plastered across her face. "I think it is his business."

Lily's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide as she stared at her in disbelief, unable to comprehend that one of her best friends would just betray her like that.

"What?" James asked dumbly, but Marlene just waved his confusion away with a lazy flick of her hand.

"Go get the rest of your posse, and bring them back here." She grinned devilishly at Lily and cracked her knuckles, ignoring the slightly alarmed look that the she and Kailynn shared. "We're going to settle this once and for all."

With a slight narrowing of his, James also adopted a smirk and crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow in intrigue. "And what do I get out of this?"

"Lily will let you snog her till your hearts content."

Completely ignoring Lily's heated protest, his eyes lit up and he pumped his fist into the air, a large and happy grin overtaking his face, making him look like a kid who had been banned from chocolate being told they could eat the entire chocolate supply at Honeydukes.

Suffice to say, he wasted no time in stumbling out of the doorway and tearing down the length of the carriage, all the while practically screaming the names of his fellow Marauders.

Pulling her gaze away from the door, Kailynn immediately wished she had just stayed in bed that morning, curled up with a nice book and a very sugary dark hot chocolate.

'I cannot _believe_ you two!" Lily berated the two girls, hitting them respectively on the head with her hard cover book. The Ravenclaw's face somehow contorted in a look of confusion, remorse and pain at the same time as the red-head continued to glare at her supposed friends. "Why? Why on _earth_ would you think that telling Potter that we were playing a game with penises was a good idea- and yes, Marls, I said penis. Grow up."

"Somebody's a bit testy today." She sang in response.

"Oh, don't even get me started on you." Lily hissed, pointing her finger right in her face. "You not only invited the Potter's entire entourage, you told him he could kiss me! I did not consent to that!" Frowning slightly, Kailynn contemplated Lily's word choice as she breath deeply in an attempt to calm herself.

"But, wouldn't saying 'Potter's entourage' mean that James is an important person or figure that people follow?" She mused subconsciously, causing one of her friends to look at her like she was a box of sugar quills and galleons, while the other looked at her like she had just beenriding a motorcycle for two hours, wearing plastic rain pants as she had violent diarrhea. "I mean, most people would consider them all equally important, but the way you phrased that implies that not do you think James is important, but that you consider him to be the most important of them all, which completely goes against anything and everything you said about him in the past."

"Kailynn?" Lily said in a sweet voice, after a brief moment of stunned silence.

"Mm?" The Ravenclaw replied, a curious expression washing over her face. However, that was quickly shut down when Lily dropped the nice girl act and hissed out two words. "Shut up."

"You know." Marlene said after Kailynn slouched back in her seat, her arms crossed with a small pout on her lips as she looked outside the window. "With all that hissing you've been doing, one might think you were truly in Slytherin all along." She continued, sending a cheeky wink at the fuming girl.

"Lily Evans in Slytherin? I think not!"

For the third time that day, Kailynn's heart almost exploded from the large amount of vicious palpitations it performed within the span of a single second. A hand flying up to her heart, she turned her head to find three slightly out of breath boys, all somehow squished into the one doorway in attempt to see within the compartment.

"What happened, what's wrong." Remus' panicked voice asked, looming just behind James shoulder in order to search the small space. "James said it was life or death, but he refused to tell us anything." Seeing that the only thing mildly concerning was his frantic eyed friend, and the very out of breath Peter behind him, he raised an eyebrow at his aforementioned friend. "Clearly we were wrong to believe him."

"It is a matter of life and death." James insisted with wide eyes. "Lily said she'd let me kiss her if I got you guys to come here."

With a war cry to rival an Amazonian princess, Lily leaped out of her seat and gave the Gryffindor boy a deathly glare, her hands clenched so tightly they were white. "I have never and would never say anything remotely close to that you overzealous, arrogant, toerag!" Before she could try to rip his eyeballs out, Marlene intervened.

"Alright!" She yelled, standing up and placing a hand on the raging Lily's shoulder. "Enough with the sexual tension! I brought you here for a very important reason!"

"But you didn't." Kailynn pointed out meekly. "You got James to-" However, Marlene waved her away like a fly that was buzzing around her head before she could finish her sentence. "Your argument is invalid and irrelevant."

Sporting a slight pout, Kailynn turned and glanced the three boys, faintly realising that the trio was missing their fourth member. "Where's Sirius?" She asked curiously, becoming confused when James nudged Remus' side with a wide smile,

"Sirius couldn't come." Peter squeaked with a cheeky grin, poking his head under James' arm to see into the compartment. "He was too embarrassed t-"

"Ha, ha, he must be on the toilet, oh well." James said, slapping a panicked hand over Peter's mouth and smiling widely as he wrapped his arm around his neck. Marlene rolled her eyes huffed impatiently at their strange behaviour. "Well, wherever he is, it doesn't matter. I need your intellectual help to prove to Lily that her answer to Kailynn's' riddle, is _wrong_."

While, normally, Remus would try to avoid being involved in such over exaggerated and pointless debates, he couldn't help but be feel a small tingle of excitement about possibly being able to solve a riddle composed by the smartest girl in Ravenclaw. "What's the riddle?" He asked curiously, moving past James to take a seat, James and Peter quickly following suit and cramming themselves next to a very uncomfortable and angry Lily.

"Kailynn, if you'll do the honours." Marlene said dramatically, rolling her hand forward the way a presenter would to present a circus act. As she fiddled with the corners of her book, the Ravenclaw vaguely noted that Marlene loved to talk with her hands, whether it be exaggerated gestures, or just wild waving. In fact, now that she thought about, the girl noticed that the girl loved to talk in general, always finding an excuse to talk about something or other. Coming out of her thoughts, she cleared her throat, already feeling her ears burn at having everyone's attention on her. "Is this really ne-"

"Kailynn." Marlene said warningly. "It wasn't a question."

Heaving a sigh, she cast her eyes down at everyone's feet and muttered her riddle. "I am owned by every man, though my length differs. Their wives use me after getting married. What am I?"

"A penis." James said instantly, barely giving his answer a second thought as Remus frowned in disappointment, and Peter quickly started nodding his head in agreement. Marlene pointed her finger at Lily, a triumphant grin growing across her face. "Ha! He said penis too!"

"It's not penis! The answer is wealth."

James furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, not understanding her thought process. "How the bloody hell could it be wealth? It's obviously penis."

But by this point, Lily had reached her tipping point and was not in the mood to deal with explaining things intellectually. "You know what, Potter? Out! I want you out, right now." She said as she stood up, harshly grabbing him by the ear and throwing him out of the compartment. Peter quickly scrambled after him, fear of Lily's wrath causing him to crash into James in attempt to get away from her.

While she yelled at them for invading her personal space, and Marlene cackled evilly behind her, Remus sighed and lazily stood up, offering a small smile to a traumatised Kailynn.

"Sorry about them." He apologised sympathetically. "Unfortunately, they're not the best at being civil." Feeling far more comfortable with less attention on her, the girl let a shy, but kind smile grace her lips. "It's fine, they're not so bad. They're just a bit . . . energetic?"

He through his head back and laughed, ignoring the cries of his friends as got kicked away from getting near the doorway. "I swear Kailynn, if you were so smart, you would be the perfect Hufflepuff." He glanced back and sighed, regrettably finding his friends to be pouting pathetically at the fire breathing Lily. "I should probably go intervene before they get themselves killed." He said, moving to the door. But before he left, he turned back with a curious expression on his face. "By the way, what's the answer?"

"Sorry, Remus. Just going to have to figure that out yourself."


	2. T W O

**SIRIUS ALWAYS THOUGHT** that the word 'crush' was such an infantile word. It's one of those words that he thinks must have been invented by older folks, the ones with an interest in belittling young love. He hated it. He knew for a certain fact that he did not have a crush on Kailynn. The entire notion was completely ridiculous to him.

He loved her.

He loved her and he knew that he would continue to love until the day he died. And if there was a life after that? He would love her then too. She was the one. He knew it. She was all that was in his mind; she was his true north, his everything. He could drink in her words like a spiked butterbeer and enjoy feeling tipsy. He watched her like she had the stars in her hands and soft petals at her feet. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and never let go. But the problem with all that, was he had to ask her out first.

Never mind that fact that he was barely even friends with her, as the only connections he had were through two of his best friends, and even then, they were close enough to called each other friends. More like acquaintances. Let's also not forget that every time he gets within a ten-foot radius of her, his nerves become so bad that he shakes at just the thought of hearing her speak.

He always tells himself; 'Tomorrow I'll find a way to talk to her, tell her how I feel.' But he always chickens out before he can even flip the covers off to get out of bed. And he has a right to be scared.

It's not like developing these kinds of feelings at the ripe and mature age of 11 is normal and even remotely healthy. He knows full well that some people would consider his feelings an obsession, especially seeing as he had barely interacted five times in the six that he's know her, but for the life of him, he could stop himself if he tried. Not that he wanted to. Of course, there had been times when he wanted all the pain of continuously being too scared to talk to her, to just go away. But never did he, and never will he want to stop loving her.

He just wished that he could finally stop hiding his emotions.

Luckily for him, he had three best friends who had pledged upon their honour as mischief makers to helping him on his quest for love.

"Oh, you should have seen her." James said dreamily. "She was breath-taking. The way her hair practically captured the light of the sun, like it was being filled with its light and f-"

"James, can we please, for once, not talk about Lily." Remus interrupted with a roll of his eyes, clipping him in the back of his head as they re-joined Sirius in the compartment. James pouted and shoved away him away, electing to flop down next to Peter and away from the mean werewolf. Sirius shook his head and let out a laugh, kicking his feet up and reaching them across the seat to lay them across Remus. "Nice to see that our new, resident Head Boy hasn't become a complete goodie, goodie."

James' hand flew to his chest, a largely exaggerated gasp filling the air. "I would never! I'd rather have a snogging session with Snivellus." He said indignantly, causing the other boys to holler in disgust and throw some of the sweets they had bought earlier at him.

"Too far, Prongs. Too far." Sirius laughed, landing a silver Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured bean in his hair. "And here I thought you were in love with Lily." Somehow managing to catch the next bean in his mouth, James grinned widely and flipped him the bird. "Oh, shut up, Padfoot. At least I can get more than a garbled sentence out to my one true love, unlike a certain Gryffindor we know."

Immediately feeling a red-hot flush creeping up his neck, Sirius huffed and glared at his snickering friends, highly embarrassed that in the six years he had been in love with the same girl, all he had been able to say to her was, 'Hi, how are you,' and 'Bye, have a nice day.' In light of his glaringly obvious discomposure, Peter and James shared an evil grin.

"Say, Peter?" James asked the small boy, ignoring his black-haired friend as he watched them warily, the blush still not quite receded from his cheeks. "What was it Kailynn asked said there? I could've sworn it had something to do with Sirius." He pondered, placing a finger against his chin mockingly, seemingly 'searching' for an answer.

Catching on quickly, Peter adopted the same pose and grinned as Sirius visibly perked up. "Now that you mention it, she _did_ say something, didn't she? It's a shame I can't remember. Remus?"

Before the boy could answer, Sirius launched himself across his seat and landed heavily on him, tightly wrapping his arms around him and leaning his head on his shoulder. "Moony, what did she say? Please don't be mean to poor, little me!" He whined dramatically as Remus awkwardly patted his head. But unbeknownst to the black-haired boy, his friend wasn't as sympathetic as he seemed.

"You know, Padfoot." He said, a mischievous expression growing on his face. "I would tell you, but most unfortunately, I seem to have developed a strange case of temporary amnesia." As the boy looked up at him in horror, he couldn't help the small snicker that left him at his friends' betrayed expression. Pouting, Sirius unlatched himself from Remus and returned to the far end of the seat, curling into a ball and haughtily refusing to look at any of friends as they laughed at his misfortune.

"You guys are mean."

* * *

For the first time since attending Hogwarts, Sirius found himself alone as he searched for an empty carriage to take him up to the school.

It was a strange concept for him, as there was never a moment when he was without one or two of his friends. But what with Remus doing prefect tasks, Peter off Merlin knows where and James – much to a certain redhead's dismay – doing Head Boy duties with Lily, that's what he was.

Alone.

It was something he hadn't had to think about in the past year or so, as he only ever felt truly alone when he was at his old house, and he had long left them behind for a life in the Potter household. But it's always been something that has weighed heavily in the back of his mind. That someday, one by one, the people he loved would disappear, whether it be on their own volition, or by others means.

However, he tried not to dwell on it for too long as he got comfortable in his seat, not wanting to think about what would happen after he left Hogwarts. Luckily for him, the universe seemed to be on his side, as it sent him a distraction from his dark thoughts.

"Hey." A soft voice greeted from the door of the carriage, causing his eyes to widen and his back to stiffen. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

Unfortunately for him, said distraction was a little bit too distracting.

Magnificently blue eyes stared shyly at his face, never quite meeting his own eyes and flittering away from him in nervousness. Nevertheless, the expression upon her pale face was soft and kind, as it always was, and there a hopeful upturn in the corner of her mouth, not quite a smile, but not quite a straight line either. Hair flowed down her back like black ink of a tilted piece of parchment, much of tangled mess of curls having long since come loose of the singular clip she had used to hold it together. The stark contrast of the black against her paper white skin only served to make her more ethereal, and more divine than her kind nature already caused her to be.

And all the more beautiful to Sirius.

Blinking rapidly, he slowly came back to reality and realised he hadn't answered her, leaving her to wait awkwardly for him to answer as he stared at her, wide eyed and practically drooling. "O-of course." He stuttered, glad the darkness of the night concealed his growing blush as he scrambled to open the door for her. "Thanks." She replied, a relieved smile stretching across her face as she clambered up and took a seat opposite him.

As soon as she sat down, the carriage immediately began moving and the young witch and wizard lapsed into an awkward silence, one of them not knowing how to start a conversation and the other simply too nervous to talk with the girl he had been crushing on for the past six years.

Time seemed to stretch itself for the two youngsters, as if it were waiting for something, and wouldn't restore normality until it got what it wanted. And even though there were so many things he wanted to talk to her about, so many things he wanted to know, Sirius would go to open his mouth and say something, only to chicken out at the last second and reluctantly keep his silence.

However, much to the surprise of both parties, it would not be Sirius to initiate conversation.

"So," Kailynn said, eyes flittering nervously to everything but the boy in front of her. "H-how was your break?" She asked awkwardly, wringing her hands and biting the inside of her lip as she waited for him to answer.

"Good, good, it was good." Sirius said, trying to disguise the eagerness in his voice. "I spent it James and his family." Desperately wanting the conversation to continue, despite how strained it already was, Sirius attempted to keep it going. "How about yours?"

"Oh, y-yeah, same." She replied, offering nothing else to fuel the meagre conversation, leaving them to – one again – lapse into a silence neither of them knew how to break. After a few more tense minutes of the two teenagers avoiding each other's gaze, Kailynn couldn't take it anymore.

"Look, I'm sorry," she blurted out. "I'm really not good at small talk I don't know that well. . ." She paused and let out a self-conscious chuckle, running a hand through her tangled hair as she reconsidered what she said. "Actually, I'm not really good at talking in general, even with people I _do_ know."

There was another pause in silence, albeit less tense then it was before.

"Well then." Sirius suddenly said, an idea coming into his mind that made a grin slowly appear on his face. "How about we start from the beginning? I'll go first." Seeing the confusion grow on her face made his grin grow wider, glad that – somehow – they were making some kind of progress. "Hello, my name is Sirius Black. If you don't mind me asking, what might be yours?"

Kailynn's brows furrowed even further, the cuteness of her confusion momentarily distracting him. "What?" She said, shaking her head slightly. "But yo-" Cutting herself off, understanding dawned upon her face as she seemed to realise where the Gryffindor boy was going. Once again running her hand through her hair, she shook her head and tried to conceal the small amused smile that threatened to break out. But as she risked a quick look at Sirius, she couldn't help the laugh that left her lips as she saw him holding out his hand with a beaming grin.

"Good evening, Mr Black." She replied, delicately placing her hand in his and giving it a light shake. "My name is Kailynn Deupré. Pleasure to meet you."

For a moment, Sirius couldn't find his voice. He felt his cheeks flush hot, and his stomach went heavy. His skin tingled where their hands met, travelling up his arm and across his shoulder blades, causing him to shiver subtly. As cheesy and overused as it was, there were butterflies – no, griffins – rampaging around in his stomach, and a heavy weight pressing on his chest, causing his heart to beat so hard and erratically, he thought it might fly out.

"The pleasure's all mine." Sirius said, coming out of his stupor. In split second decision, sooner than he could chicken out, he brought her hand to his lips and gave it a quick, but soft kiss. Before she could comment or react to his out of character action, Sirius promptly let go of her hand and sat back in his seat, glad – for the millionth time – that the darkness concealed his blush. "So, Kailynn Deupré, what is your favourite colour?"

For the rest of the ride, their conversation consisted of all sorts topicsAll too soon the carriage pulled to a stop, surprising both teenagers, as they had become so immersed in conversation, the rest of the ride had passed by in a blur. Glancing around in disappointment, Sirius watched as other student clambered out of their carriages and chattered with their friends, all moving towards the giant doors that led into the castle. Getting out of the carriage first, he held his hand up to Kailynn. "Milady."

"Thanks." She said, a light blush dusting across her cheeks as she accepted his offer to help her out of the carriage. For the second time that day, his hand met hers and he felt his heart was once again pounding in his throat, so loudly that he swore it was audible, threatening to break out. It felt like liquid adrenaline being injected right into his bloodstream. Her eyes wandered around the crowd as she stepped down to the ground, but his stayed locked on her. When their eyes met again, he couldn't help but be mesmerised by the smile she gave him. It was only a small smile, but it was enough to make him go weak at the knees.

Seeing his friends waving him over in the distance, Sirius was regrettably forced to let go of Kailynn's hand. "I suppose this is where we part." He said, gesturing towards his wide eyed and gaping friends as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his robe. However, as soon as Kailynn looked over and saw them, the scrambled to act natural and ended up hiding behind a group of second years as they made their way to the great hall. Not entirely sure what they had been doing to warrant their panicked behaviour, she smiled and nodded her head shyly. "Yeah." She said, noticing her own group of Ravenclaw friends calling to her. "Thanks, Sirius. I had fun."

"Me too. See you 'round?" He asked hopefully as he started to move away, ignoring James in the distance as he excitedly jumped up and down and smacked Moony repeatedly on his shoulder.

"Yeah." She confirmed, onceagain glancing back at his group of friends, Kailynn's smile grew wider as they hid behind a different group of an amused shake of her head, she pretended not to notice his friends' strange antics. "See you 'round."

As she gave him a small wave and smile, Sirius watched her go with a slightly heavy heart and suddenly, had a wild thought.

"Hey, Kailynn!" He called, swallowing nervously when she turned around and tilted her head curiosity. "S-say, if we have any classes tomorrow . . . d– w-would you like to, I don't know, sit together?" He somehow got out, running a hand through his hair and hoping that she didn't notice his obvious blush and stutter.

But his worrying was all for naught, as after pondering for a few agonising seconds, her smile came back in full and Sirius could felt his stomach clench in relief. "I don't see why not. Until tomorrow, Sirius."

With one last torturously beautiful smile, she turned around and walked away, soon joining a group of giggling girls who flocked around her like a colony of seagulls.

Too busy staring after the love of his life, Sirius didn't even realise his friends had snuck up on him until he felt two arms sling across his shoulders. Already knowing what he would find, he refused to give them the satisfaction of looking at their overly exaggerated, proud faces.

"Oh, Moony!" James wailed, throwing the arm that wasn't around His friend's shoulder, over his eyes dramatically. "Look at our boy! Talking to girls! Growing up!" He gave a fake cry of anguish and went limp, relying completely on Sirius to keep him upright. "I don't know if I can handle it!"

"Trust me, I know the feeling, Prongs." Remus said sympathetically, also leaning his tall figure on Sirius. "It seems like only this afternoon he had been too scared to even enter the same compartment as his love, know he's having full blown romantic carriage rides with her."

Even Peter, who was usually the quietest of the four, joined in on teasing the blushing boy. "Lads, what is the world coming to?" He exclaimed, walking backwards to face them as they finally pushed their way past the mob of people and into the castle. "At the rate things are going, next thing we know, he'll being ditching us to sit with her in class."

As the three boys cackled at their friends' expense, said friend's blush grew darker in shade, prompting everyone around them to stare as the rest of the Marauders to howled louder. Scowling irritably, Sirius shrugged their arms off his shoulders and stalked through the Great Hall's doors, blatantly ignoring his supposed 'friends' as they continued to laugh and joke behind him, instead opting to sulkily plant himself at the Gryffindor table by himself.

However, it didn't take long for the three other boys to take up residence next to and across from him. "Ah, come on Padfoot, you know we're only joking." Remus told him, only having slight difficulty getting his lanky legs through the gap between the bench and table. "We're proud of you, really."

"Yeah," Peter squeaked, plopping into his seat. "I'm mean, we all know I would never be able to do that in a million years."

Still refusing to acknowledge the other Marauders, Sirius slumped down and laid his head on his arms, stubbornly keeping his eyes trained on the teachers at the head table as James nudged his side with his elbow. "Paddy, mate." He said, once again slinging an arm around his shoulder. "You know we don't mean it, right?"

"I know, I know." Sirius groaned, hiding his head in the crook of his arm, unable to completely ignore his best friends any longer. "You guys are mean." He mumbled, to which they all laughed. But it quickly trailed off as the Great Hall doors creaked open to allow entrance to the Head of Gryffindor and a gaggle of terrified first years. Sighing in relief, Sirius, like all the students in the hall who began to simmer, turned to watch the group as they passed by, grateful for the distraction.

"Don't think you've gotten away from this." Remus muttered to him, Peter and James smirking in agreement. "After this, you're either going to tell us all the juicy details or we'll convince Filch to hang you from your toes." He grinned mischievously. "Shouldn't be too hard."


	3. T H R E E

E

N

Glowing, beryl-green eyes floated in the shadows of the room, the iris almost being swallowed by the pitch black dilation of the pupil. The rest of the creatures' body was seemingly invisible – as if it was made of the darkness itself. It padded across the room, barely making a sound on the stone floor as it stalked towards its' target.

As the first rays of morning shone through the towers window, the creatures' midnight fur appeared silky and glossy in texture, shimmering and undulating with every slinking step it took. It weaved between stray shoes and ducked under tables until, finally, it came to a stop at the foot of one of the beds and gracefully leaped to the surface. The creatures' narrowed eyes developed a satisfied glint as its' prey came into focus, green orbs shinning maliciously as it stealthily prowled closer and closer. Soon enough, its' target was fully laid out before, her strange features blissfully peaceful and unaware of the danger that it was currently exposed to, her dark hair spread out around her head like a halo.

The beast lowered itself down, muscles tense, but loose at the same time, infinitely poised to strike, completely balanced and prepared for action. And finally, with one last calculating squint and a slight shift in stance, the beast pounced, unleashing its' razer-sharp and vicious fury.

"Pouah!" The girl groaned, reflexively lifting her arm to push the black mass off her face to keep it from suffocating her. Slowly and reluctantly, she uncovered her face, the streaks of rising sunlight penetrating through the window leaving her blinded, causing her to blink furiously against the dryness of her eyes. Once she became adjusted to the light and the cold chill of the morning, she rolled over and propped herself up to glare with a raised eyebrow at the black furred, innocent looking, devil of a fluff ball that was casually lying next to her.

"Really, Memphis?"

As expected, the only response she got was what appeared to be the biggest the suck up look, in the history of suck up looks, she'd ever seen in her life, complete with a pathetic little mewl. With another groan, she fell back onto the four-poster bed, the mattress sinking under her weight as she snuggled deeper into the silken duvet. Knowing she wouldn't be able to ignore the cat any longer as it continued to smooch her, she reluctantly sat up, dragging her feet off the bed, and rubbing knuckles onto her eyes. Stretching her arms above her head and yawning, she absent-mindedly brought her hand down and started scratching behind her cats' ear, blankly watching her legs dangle above the off-grey stone floor.

But her peaceful contemplation didn't last long as the needy feline next to her started to softly meow. It was more of a whine really, and it slowly and surely got louder. "Alright, alright!" Kailynn whispered lowly. "I'll feed you."

Sighing heavily, she looked around the dormitory, checking that none of the inhabitants of the other four-poster beds had been woken. Relieved to find that no one was glaring at her for being woken up in the ungodly hours of the morning, Kailynn quickly placed her feet on the cold floor and quickly tip-toed across the room, the freezing temperature of the stone sending shockwaves through her toes and up her spine.

"Come on, Memphis. Down to the kitchens we go." She whispered, carefully prying open the wooden door and letting the sneaky feline out first, quickly following behind him. After quietly closing the door, she turned around and stifled the chuckle that left her lips at the sight of the over-enthusiastic cat slide down the stairs, in his attempt to race her to his breakfast.

"Silly cat." She mumbled, a small smile forming on her face as she bent down to pick him up. "One day, you're going to fall off a cliff just because you smelt food."

Now completely awake, she trotted down the spiral staircase with a smug Memphis lying content in her arms, purring loudly as she scratched under his chin. It didn't take her long to reach the bottom, leaving her to juggle the cat in one arm so that she could pull the lever to open the secret stone wall. However, the moment it slid ajar, Memphis flew out of her hold like a shot from a cannon, darting across the common room and whining loudly as he ran around in crazy circles.

"For Merlin's sake, Mem, calm down!" She laughed, walking over to the large fridge standing conspicuously with other kitchen appliances. It was a clever invention, the whole thing being created and modified by a past Ravenclaw student. Not only did it run on magic, rather than electricity, but it also had a seemingly endless supply of food. Practically the entire House held the area in the highest regard, as it saved many midnight trips to the kitchens whenever someone was pulling an all-nighter and just so happened to fancy a late-night snack.

The only reason anyone went down to the Great Hall to eat was because none of the teachers knew it the area actually existed, which was due to a very powerful and very permanent concealment charm – created and cast by Kailynn herself. It was a very exhausting affair, as it was very difficult to construct a charm that would allow a Ravenclaw student and a Ravenclaw student only to divulge the secret, with the added fact that new students arrived every year – which meant that the charm would have to be ever moving and ever evolving. But finally, after taking inspiration from the Fidelius Charm, Kailynn somehow managed to not only create the charm, but preform it as well.

Much to her embarrassment, there was even a brass plaque with her name on it, commemorating her for her 'outstanding use of intellectual and practical skill in the face of adversary'.

Now, to the outside world, this sort of reaction may have seemed very elaborate or over-the-top, but in all fairness, the Ravenclaws' were terrified that the teachers would confiscate their precious fridge and force them to tear down their beautiful kitchen. Why then one could argue that it was a rational decision on all fronts, especially seeing as everybody knows that no one ever survives getting in-between a Ravenclaw and their food.

No one.

Ever.

* * *

As the sun gradually rose higher over the forbidden forest, more and more people within the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry woke up, their late-night shenanigans evident through the dark circles practically imprinted under their eyes as they shuffled into the Great Hall.

Having long ago put on her robes and fed Memphis – who she had left lounging in a patch of sunlight – Kailynn was now having a nice, relaxing breakfast, watching in faint amusement as a Hufflepuff first year face-planted into his bowl of porridge while his friend fell asleep leaning on his shoulder. While she sympathised with the bone-tired tweens – knowing that they were excited about the new school, at the same time, she couldn't help but think it was the youngsters own faults for staying up late to talk into the wee hours of the day.

That being said, she knew quite a fair few of choice people who would do the same thing, no matter how old they were.

Hearing a loud wail from behind her, Kailynn barely had any time to prepare herself against the heavy body that suddenly dropped on her, almost causing her to be dragged out of her seat by the sheer dead weight of the person.

"I. Regret. Everything." Marlene whimpered, her chin resting on Kailynn's shoulder and arms hanging limp as she practically draped herself over her Ravenclaw friend. "Remind me to never again to stay up all night when I class the next day."

"Don't I always?" Kailynn groaned, attempting to shift Marlene's weight so that she wasn't completely crushing her. "What good does it do you, if you don't ever listen?"

Somehow managing to pull off a scowl and a pout at the same time, Marlene seemed to melt off her friend and land in a liquid puddle onto the seat next to her. "I do listen!" She insisted with a groan.

"Listening is not the same as simply hearing." Lily's voice reprimanded, causing the other Gryffindor girl to shriek in alarm at her unexpected appearance, blushing madly when almost everyone else in the hall seemed to jump awake at the ear-piercing noise. "How many times do Ihave to tell you that."

Rolling her eyes and huffing, Marlene greedily reaching for a pitcher of pumpkin juice, pointedly ignoring Lily's disapproving stare and the disgusted glances of all the Ravenclaws at the table as she drank straight from the pitcher itself, not bothering with a glass as she practically chugged the entire thing.

"You know what, Lily?" She said, lowering the pitcher and wiping her mouth with her sleeve, a small quaver in her voice as she stared at the girl with pouty eyes and lips. "You're being incredibly mean, and I have no idea what on earth has warranted such a reaction, but I'm feeling very personally attacked right now and I would appreciate it if you would just turn down the bitchiness just a bit." She sniffled dramatically, going as far as to pretend to wipe a tear away from her face.

"And I would appreciate it if you would refrain from using such vulgar language this early, Miss McKinnon." A voice interrupted dryly, causing people in the surrounding area to snicker. Kailynn looked up from her toast and caught the eye of the speaker, biting her lip to supress a smile at the expertly concealed twinkle in her eye. "In fact, I would prefer it if you didn't swear at all." Professor McGonagall finished, her famously raised eyebrow daring Marlene to rebel.

As it turned out, it wasn't Marlene she had to worry about.

"Oh, come on Prof," a new voice joined, immediately causing Lily to tense and glare heatedly at the centre of the Ravenclaw table. Once again, Kailynn twisted her head to see the new comer, fighting the urge to shake her head in amusement at the cocky grin that rested easily on James Potter's face. "A good ole swear here and there never did any harm."

Internally, Kailynn was cringing, knowing that with the arrival of James meant that an argument would most likely start brewing between said Gryffindor and Lily.

This was going to be a long day.

"Hey, Kailynn."

The moment he sat down, all the bravado she had built yesterday in that carriage, disappeared. She didn't know if it was there to being with, or whether she had just been faking it in hopes to escape the awkward silence.

In truth, she had never been good with people. Whether it was people she already knew, or people she had just met, she had always found it incredibly difficult to talk and connect with them. Sometimes, although she'd never admit it, she had trouble holding conversation with Lily and Marlene, two of her best friends – two of her only friends.

It was only by the request of her Head of House, Professor Flitwick, that she try to venture outside her comfort zone.

She turned her head slightly to meet Sirius's curious and expectant gaze.

A very long day indeed.

* * *

 _Ah, so a much_ _shorter_ _than usual, but I decided to cut it here, as I really want to do the next chapter in Sirius's mind, because I feel like the events affect him greater than Kailynn._

 _So, what'd you think? Isn't Memphis adorable? Oh, and it's Memphis like the Egyptian God, not the American city/state._


End file.
